Is Abortion Really So Bad?

Dr. J.R. Beeke and J.W. Beeke

In the year 1985, 1.58 million abortions were
performed in hospitals and various clinics across the United States
and more than 62,000 unborn children were put to death across
Canada. Approximately 30% of all known pregnancies end in abortion.
If we consider that Canada lost 40,000 men and United States surrendered.
4 million lives during World War 11, we begin to realize how many
lives are being taken by human hands in our countries. Three
times as many unborn children have lost their lives in one year
in our countries than our countries have lost soldiers in the
Second World War.

When we reflect back with grief upon the lives
lost during World War 11, how much more we should contemplate
this present day issue of abortion. We certainly should have a
strong rational, ethical, and moral basis to permit this many
lives to be ended by human hands each year.

Let us examine the arguments used by those
who promote abortion to determine on how strong of a foundation
this practice is based.

Argument 1:

The fetus (unborn child) is not really human,
therefore it can be killed.

Those who hold this viewpoint will agree that
at some point the child growing in the womb of the mother becomes
a human being. Some set this time at the sixth week of pregnancy,
some at three months, some at felt signs of life by the mother,
and some at birth. Hospitals, clinics, and state or provincial
rules concerning the maximum development stage at which to allow
abortion vary with these various opinions. When we consider some
medical facts, as the following, it would appear very difficult
to speak definitely of a time in which the fetus is not human.

At 3 weeks after conception a baby's heart
begins beating.

At 6 weeks after conception a baby's brain
waves are traceable.

At 11 weeks after conception all of the
baby's internal organs are present and functioning.

If there is a time after conception in which
the living and growing unborn child is not human. who and what
is it then? If we search biological classifications of living
organisms, how would we classify this living and growing fetus
if it were not a human being? If this matter of determining when
the unborn child is a human being is so unclear, how do we dare
to say that abortion is permissible, and not murder?

Argument 2:

The fetus requires a host body and therefore
cannot be considered fully human because it is dependent on another.

Those who uphold this argument of independent
viability tread on very dangerous territory. If this is true that
an individual is less human because he is dependent upon another
person or object, we could argue from this principle that the
newborn, the physically and mentally handicapped, the senile,
kidney-machine dependent, etc. are all less human because they
are directly dependent on others and therefore we may dispose
of them at random. If it is murder for a mother to kill her newborn
child which is entirely dependent upon her (consider especially
an infant born prematurely), why is it not murder for her to kill
her child before it is born?

Argument 3:

A woman bas a right to do with her body
as she desires.

Even if this argument were entirely true (which
it is not), this would not give her the right to do with another
person's body as she would desire. Abortion involves the death
of a separate body, her unborn child's. To argue that the living
fetus is part of the mother's body defies reason: which organ
of her body is it? When the unborn child's heart beats, whose
heart is it? When the fetus's brain waves can be traced, whose
brain is it? To willfully end the life of another for one's own
convenience has always been viewed as murder.

Argument 4:

If abortion upon demand is declared illegal
again, women will have abortions anyway by traveling to other
countries or through illegal and unsafe back-street abortionists.

The fact that other areas of the world practice
things which we forbid, or that items can be purchased illegally
which are out-lawed, is not a proper basis for law-making. Our
laws must be based on sound principles; if abortion is the taking
of the life of another, it must be forbidden by law. Further,
all evidence gathered to date seems to indicate that the back-street
abortionists are as active today as they were some years ago before
abortion upon demand was practiced.

Argument 5:

Death before birth is better for the "unwanted"
child, than living a life of "unwantedness".

To give a human being decisional powers to
determine if another individual is "wanted" or "unwanted"
is most dangerous. The implications of this viewpoint are staggering.
once human life is devalued to a level of human decision concerning
its worthiness or "wantedness," the horrors of Nazi-defined
worthless or "unwanted" human beings are again brought
into the field of human consideration. Would some not place the
mentally retarded, invalids, senile, etc. in this same category?
Besides, do not many "unwanted' pregnancies result in "wanted"
children after birth? Do not many "unwanted" children
overcome severe social handicaps in their youth and function as
useful adult citizens? Are not adoption agencies continually short
of infants for parents who want "unwanted" children?

In critically examining the five basic arguments
for abortion upon demand, can we honestly conclude on a rational,
ethical, and moral basis that abortion should be legal? When we
consider that more than 98% of all abortions in the past year
were for personal convenience reasons and that less than 2% were
for rape, incest, protection of the life of the mother, and defective
fetuses, must this not heighten our concern? In a country based
on the guaranteeing of certain individual rights to its citizens
of which the right to life is a most basic principle, are we not
digressing to authorize "murder-upon-demand" today.?

It is amazing that often those stressing the
need to stop abortion are accused of trying to force their beliefs
on others. in reality, all who participate in an abortion force
their views on another, viz., on the unborn child - so strongly
in fact, that it results in his or her death. If the unborn child
is a human being when examined rationally, ethically, and morally,
how can one be accused of trying to force his own belief on another
when trying to protect the life of the child from his or her murderer?
if a mother abused her six-month-old child so severely that the
child died and we demand this practice be stopped because it harms
and results in the loss of another's life, would we be accused
of forcing our beliefs on others? This type of shallow accusation
misses the entire argument. if the unborn child is a human being-then
abortion is murder! If abortion is murder we must do all in our
power to stop it.

The liberalization of interpretation of laws
concerning abortion today by many courts, legislatures, doctors,
and hospital boards has resulted in the large number of abortions
we are presently witnessing. Indeed, it has subjected our society
to some strong paradoxes, such as:

Today a woman crossing the street in front
of a hospital, which she plans to enter to have an abortion, could
be hit by a car and lose her baby. if the driver of the car was
at fault she could legally sue the driver for the loss of her
child's life. Yet the same woman could also proceed into the hospital
without an accident, and legally have her child's life taken away
through abortion.

Today more unborn children and infants
die from abortion than from any other form of accidents or diseases.
The most dangerous place for a developing child today is in his
or her mother's womb.

Today many legislators are fighting to
outlaw all forms of capital punishment, even for the worst of
criminal offenders, because this is viewed as cruel and unusual
punishment. Yet, many of the same individuals can vote to approve
the killing of thousands of innocent, unborn children.

So far we have concentrated on defeating the
pro-abortionists' "best" arguments on their own grounds
of rational, ethical, and moral reasoning, via a negative
approach. We have left basically untouched the innumerable serious
side-consequences of abortion: the screams of the unborn (see
Dr. Gilson's book, Alarm -A World in Danger); the cutting, slicing,
burning, poisoning, or bleeding accompanying approved murder (see
Dr. Koop's book, The Right to Live,
particularly the section on the techniques of abortion); the tragic
burial of the unborn in trash cans and ash incinerators (see Ed
Melton's article in Temple Times); the post-abortion anxiety,
depression, sense of loss, anger, remorse, nightmares, infertility,
and flashbacks of murdering mothers who yield to the increasingly
acceptable option and social fashion of modern abortioning. (See
a remarkable study in Milwaukee of 95 post-abortion women which
reveals the variety of types of distress experienced, pp. 57-58
of Dr. Koops' book,)

But we must turn to a higher court of authority
than human reasoning and human consequences. We are called to
the even more important task of setting forth positively
the truths and proclamations of God's Word which are directly
and/or indirectly involved in the issue of abortion. "To
the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this
Word, it is because there is no light in them" (Is. 8:20).
Ultimately, the issue of abortion can and must be settled only
in the pages of Holy Writ - not by court proclamations
of Bible-denying judges.

God's Word never treats the soul as being created
in the womb at some point after conception. Rather, in Psalm 51:5
David tells us: "Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in
sin did my mother conceive me." How can an unborn child,
while yet in the womb, possess a sinful nature which separates
him from God, and yet possess no soul? Can anything be shapen
in iniquity while remaining soul-less? David confesses his united
soul-body creation even more plainly in Psalm 139: 13-16,

"For Thou hast possessed my reins:
Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise Thee;
for I (soul and body) am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous
are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance
was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my
substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all my members
were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet
there was none of them."

Further, in Gen. 9:4 we read, "the life
thereof which is the blood thereof " This phrase is the basis
for many other passages of Scripture which equate blood with life,
and call the shedding of blood sin Jer. 22:3; Ps. 106:37-38; Dt.
19:10,13; 21:9; 11 Ki. 24:4; Prov 6:16-17, etc.). in other words,
since every fetus has its own blood, the shedding of that blood
is as surely the taking of life (soul and body) as it would be
in any other circumstance or situation.

Proclamation 2:

The Word of God forbids murder - by abortion
or any other means - because God created man in His own image.

Sacred biblical truth proclaims to us unceasingly
that God is the Author and Giver of human life, and therefore
no creature has a right to intentionally dispose of, nor destroy
such a complex Divine creation. In Gen. 9:6 we read, "Whoso
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in
the image of God made He man." Though we have lost the image
of God in its narrower sense entirely through our deep fall in
Adam, wider remnants of God's image still cling to us after the
fall - including our very soul-body personhood. In spite of our
fall, we still receive our life from God in a special manner.
In a peculiar manner we receive the breath or life of our souls
directly from God (Gen. 2:7), making us more than plants or animals.
job confessed, "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath
of the Almighty hath given me life."

Contrary to Scripture, abortionists principally
and inevitably reject the sacredness and value of life, treat
God's complex creation as nothing more than a growing cell, and
deny that the life of a human being is created for a never-ending
eternity. At minimum, abortion reduces man to an animalistic
level, ignoring the very mark of true personhood - his never-dying
soul.

Proclamation 3:

God's Word teaches us that Divine sovereignty
excludes all abortions - even in such cases as rape, incest, or
possible retardation.

God's sovereignty must be brought to the fore
in all areas of life - also in current areas of debate, such as
abortion. Abortion treads into Divine territory by taking into
the hands of man that which belongs to the sovereign Jehovah alone.
"The Lord killeth and maketh alive" (I Sam. 2:6). Humanistic
abortionists think it cruel to cut off all abortions entirely,
especially in cases of rape, possible handicaps or retardation,
and incest. Their cruelty charge, however, falls back on themselves.

With respect to rape, studies reveal that it
seldom results in pregnancy. A study in Minneapolis of 3,500 consecutive
rapes revealed not a single pregnancy. Besides, will abortion
of the innocent product of a rape return the mother to an unviolated,
unassaulted state? Will abortion apprehend the rapist? Will abortion
restore the mother to her pre-raped state of peace of mind? In
a sense, abortion of the unborn baby produced by rape is just
as violent an act as the rape itself. Instead of adding crime
to crime, how much better would it not be for such a woman to
confess to the Lord, "I know that what has taken place is
within the realm of Thy providence and sovereignty. Give me grace
to bow under Thy ways." Such grace would bring peace of mind
far more richly than all the abortion clinics in the world could
give.

Each person formed in the womb of his mother
lies in the decree of God - blind, maimed, retarded, and deformed
as equally as those born with health. Also in this respect the
Lord's ways are above our ways. On the one hand, such a child
is often not only loved by its parents equally with the others,
but the Lord may also be pleased to teach valuable lessons through
such trials. Dr. Koop writes:

"My professional life has been
spent largely with children who are less than one would consider
totally normal... In the thousands of such circumstances in which
I have participated, I have never had a parent ask me why I tried
so hard to save the life of their defective child. Nor has any
parent ever expressed to me the wish that his child had not been
saved."

On the other hand, doctors are often wrong
in predicting handicaps at birth. A British medical journal recently
included this contribution:

"One way of catching class attention
is to ask what advice students would give when presented with
the following family history. The father has syphilis, the mother
tuberculosis; they have already had four children-the first is
blind, the second died, the third is deaf and dumb, and the fourth
has tuberculosis. The mother is pregnant with her fifth child,
and the parents are willing to have an abortion should you so
decide ... After the majority of the class express their favor
of abortion, you tell them they have just murdered Beethoven."

God is free to do with all His creatures as
it pleases Him, but we need grace to bow before Him, under
Him, and in with Him. Jeremiah, Isaiah, and John the Baptist
were converted already in the womb before many today wouldjudge that they even had a soul, and
we read in Romans 9:

"When Rebecca also had conceived
by one, even by our father Isaac, (for the children being not
yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of
Him that calleth:) it was said unto her. The elder shall serve
the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have
I hated" (vv. 10, 1,3).

Proclamation 4

According to God's Word, Divine justice
shall rest heavily on the nation or people who persevere in such
murderous tragedies as abortion.

In Exodus 21:22-23 we read:

"If men strive, and hurt a woman
with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and vet no mischief
follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's
husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life."

If God's commanded penalty for a case of accidental
abortion is so severe, shall He stand idly by while murderous
abortionists deliberately shed blood? Must we not cry out,
"Woe unto thee, North America. For if the mighty works which
were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have
repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes"? Yes, abortion
is truly bad. Abortion is nothing less than the premeditated,
calculated, legalized murder of nameless, voiceless, helpless
human beings created by God It is said of the ancients that
they sacrificed their infants unto the god Moloch. it may one
day be written that the pagans of 20th century America sacrificed
their infants - their unborn sons and daughters - to the
gods of Selfishness, Materialism, Irresponsibility, and Humanism,
via abortion. Abortion, together with a host of sexually permissive
sins, surely makes our land to be a stench in the nostrils of
God.

The Judge stands before the door. He will not
be mocked. His patience will not endure forever. Senator Jesse
Helms wrote: "Unless the abortion decision is reversed by
an amendment to the Constitution, the future of America is in
grave doubt, for no nation can remain free or exercise moral leadership
when it has embraced the doctrine of death."

The blood of countless millions cries to God.
It is on all of our hands, for we are all guilty. Who is
there among us that trembles at the Word of God - who trembles
at the thought that what the Lord said to Cain, "The voice
of Thy brother's blood crieth to Me from the ground," brings
in its wake the awesome burden of the voiceless millions in our
land whose blood is being shed hourly?

May the Lord humble us. He only knows how far
the evil of abortion has penetrated the domain of the church of
God. It is an evil that eats as a canker because the truth has
very little impression on the conscience of man any more. only
the fear of God can keep us from sin. May the Lord convince us
of our deep guilt, personally and nationally. God forbid that
He find us unconcerned, silent, or lukewarm over such blatant
iniquity as abortion. Let us seek grace to strive together against
this outright breach of the 6th commandment.

What tasks are we then called to?

Prayer. Ask
the Lord to grant true prayer for our countries, its leaders,
the medical profession, and others involved.

Education. Obtain
information on abortion, and seek ways to fight effectively against
it.

Support. Give
financial or membership support to conservative anti-abortion
groups such as Right To Life,
Pro-Life, etc. (in the United States -subscribe to Right to Life News,
PO. Box 73, Clovis, Calif. 93613.) (In Canada-subscribe to
Pro Life News, 203-379 Broadway Ave., Winnipeg, Manitoba,
Canada, R3C-OT9.) Speak against the sin of abortion toothers
when the opportunity avails itself.

Legislation. As
citizens of the United States and Canada, write your appropriate
elected government officials on a local and national level, to
inform them of your opposition to abortion.